harry styles is coming in September. hs2 is coming in September. a shirtless photoshoot and interview is coming in September. Who wins? harries win. Who wins? harry styles wins.pic.twitter.com/yKgZHpFgAv

Ian played English teacher and Aria’s beau on Pretty Little Liars. We may have swooned over Ezra and his charming ways in the earlier seasons, but we were swiftly creeped out when he was revealed as ‘A’. Ian may be a talented actor, but we can’t help but feel like he’s a little bit too old for this role?

Lost In Japan singer Shawn Mendes has also been tipped as a potential Prince Eric, but other than his resemblance to the dashing royal, he doesn’t really suit the role considering he has no acting experience.

Glee and American Crime Story actor Darren Criss is one of the strongest contenders for the role of Prince Eric. The Emmy award winning star has already played Eric in a live performance of The Little Mermaid at The Hollywood Bowl. He certainly looks the part.

The Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name actor is one of the most popular young actors at the moment so we’re not surprised to see his name mentioned alongside Harry Styles. However, with so many upcoming projects, including a role in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, we feel like Mr Chalamet may be too busy for this project.

I, Tonya and Captain America actor Sebastian Stan would be the perfect Prince Eric. Are we slightly biased because we’ve been madly in love with him since he played Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl? Yes… but seriously, can someone give Sebastian Stan the role of Ariel's true love?

The hashtag #NotMyAriel even trended after the casting announcement, with racism clearly alive and well. It's rare that an actress-of-colour gets a protagonist role, especially in a Disney film, so it's a huge deal.

In an open letter referencing Ursula the sea witch, the network reminded the ridiculous critics of the new Ariel that the tale is a "work of fiction" and that the casting of the "highly talented, gorgeous" Bailey is "inspired".

The letter reads: "Ariel … is a mermaid. She lives in an underwater kingdom in international waters and can legit swim wherever she wants…But for the sake of argument, let's say that Ariel, too, is Danish."

It added: "If you still cannot get past the idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly talented, gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything other than INSPIRED casting that it is because she 'doesn't look like the cartoon one', oh boy, do I have some news for you… about you."

"Ariel can sneak up to the surface at any time with her pals Scuttle and the *ahem* Jamaican crab Sebastian and keep that bronze base tight. Black Danish people, and thus mer-folk, can also *genetically* have red hair," Freeform continued. SLAY.

Hilarious rapper and actress Awkwafina, who is set to play Scuttle in the film, responded to criticism by saying:

"I think that she's going to play an amazing mermaid. She's an incredible singer, incredible actress and I'm really excited to have her as a Disney princess."

The original Little Mermaid herself, Jodi Benson, has also had her say about the casting. “The most important thing is to tell the story," she started, via Comicbook.com.

"And we have, as a family, we have raised our children, and for ourselves, that we don’t see anything that’s different on the outside. I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters," she continued.

“We need to be storytellers," she added. "And no matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the colour of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever colour, we really need to tell the story."

"I know for Disney that they have the heart of storytelling, that’s really what they’re trying to do. They want to communicate with all of us in the audience so that we can fall in love with the film again.”

Bailey is half of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle with her sister, Chloe. Halle has yet to speak out about the backlash, which is probably wise. Don't waste energy on bigots, girl.

“After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role,” Marshall said in a statement.

The incredible cast already includes Jacob Tremblay and the hilarious Awkwafina, of Crazy Rich Asians and Oceans 8 fame. Melissa McCarthy is also rumoured to be playing the sea-witch Ursula.

The Little Mermaid will incorporate original songs from the 1989 animated hit film, as well as adding new song from original composer Alan Menken and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Miranda is producing the film along with Marshall, Marc Platt and John DeLuca, so it's set to be absolutely amazing. David Magee has written the script, with Jane Goldman having written a previous draft.

Menken wrote the iconic original music from the film, including songs like Under the Sea, Kiss the Girl and Part of Your World. Our childhoods are essentially being reignited and we couldn't be happier.

The movie followed mermaid Ariel's journey after falling in love with Prince Eric, a human. She trades in her voice for a pair of legs, and it gets fairly chaotic after that…

Many of us were absolutely RAISED on Disney when we were kids. We grew up with the incredible cinema releases of The Lion King, Aladdin, Cinderella, Mulan and The Little Mermaid, and it changed our lives forever.

The Disney princess role has changed as the generations got older (and more feminist), bringing more progressive films with 3D female characters such as Brave, Frozen, Moana, The Princess and the Frog and Tangled.

Kiera Knightly recently spoke out against the films, saying that her three-year-old daughter is banned from watching them in her home.

When asked why, she said to "rescue yourself!" from the prince is a far better message to send to young women; "Cinderella waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don’t." Right on, gal, right on. Fight the power.

However, when we were watching the classic princess films as children, I highly doubt we realised at the time just how YOUNG they all are, which arguably makes the movies seem a tad creepy.

It's basically teens getting sexualised and sent off to live with a man who has privilege over them forever.

For decades, young girls have been seeing these characters as role models; they're compassionate, fierce, caring, brave and highly intelligent.

Many of the gals are preparing for marriage, but they're in their mid-teens. Seems a little weird, considering the men they're marrying are often at least ten years older.

For example. Pocahontas' age in the film was never confirmed, but in real life she actually met John Smith when she was just a 10 year old girl. Ew.

First up: Princess Jasmine. Aladdin's bae was only 15-years-old in the film, as a recent The Mary Suearticle pointed out. So when she's dressed in red and is seducing Jafar (a creepy old man), she's officially underage…

A key portion of the film revolves around the fact that she's obliged to marry a prince before her sixteenth birthday, which is three days away.

The Mary Sue also noted that Jasmine is a highly sexualised character, with Jafar commanding the genie to force her to love him. Alright…we're officially disturbed.

Plus, that waist-line is a fantasy; she'd fit maybe half an organ in there if she's lucky.

HuffPost has previously pointed out that none of the 'official' Disney princesses are older than 19, even though most of them are wed or engaged by the end of each of their respective movies.

Ariel is a sixteen-year-old who claims to be an adult, while Eric is the ripe old age of 18. So in today's day-and-age, it would be illegal for them to marry.

Granted, these films are purely fantasy, but it's pretty strange how they design the princesses as sexualised teenagers who always end up with an older man.

If this next one doesn't shock you, we don't know what will. Snow White is just 14 YEARS OLD when she meets her prince, and escapes from a cruel queen who tries to cut out her heart out of vanity.

The prince also kisses her while she's KO'd; problematic as f*ck.

Kristen Bell has also pointed out issues with Snow White as a film, which was the first colour Disney animation and was released back in 1938.

“Don’t you think that it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission?” Bell says she asked her daughters. “Because you can not kiss someone if they’re sleeping!” Hello, consent?

Fairy tales don’t have a stable form, and every era rewrites centuries old fairy tales to fit it's specific agenda or zeitgeist. Many Disney princesses were based on the 1812 Brothers Grimm tales.

They changed their book of stories to adapt to 19th-century German bourgeois family values, so why can't we update them in 2019?

Cinderella was transformed into a live-action remake recently, but ZERO alterations were made.

Our Chinese hero warrior Mulan, famous for it's WHOPPER tunes like I'll Make a Man Out of You: she's also sixteen. Yet she has to nurture a fragile toxic male ego, and marries him in the end.

Ok, then, it took a woman to fix a man's dodgy job and her reward is a lifetime of obedience. Sleeping Beauty's Aurora was also 16-years-old, and we've got another classic case of non-consent.

While Disney has 100 percent made improvements for it's female characters, like Frozen's Queen Elsa and Princess Anna especially, and Brave's Merida (also 16); it's important to be aware of the classic films and their morals.

The live-action Aladdin doesn't arrive for another few months (May 24 to be exact), we have no idea if Jasmine will be a more marriage-appropriate age. The actress cast to play her is 25-years-old, at least.

Naomi Scott isn't a teenager, so let's hope her character isn't either. Scott told Entertainment Weeklythat her character’s goal is “really to protect her people, to do right by them," in December, so we have high hopes.

Disney just cast this actor, Marwan Kenzari, as Jafar in the live-action Aladdin, which I…uh…that is…um…what was I saying? pic.twitter.com/bVDv2JAZYs

First things first, I learnt far more from the film industry’s female ‘villains’ than I did from the so-called ‘heroines’. The ‘villains’ are simply exaggerated versions of the women some of us are desperate to be, but don’t feel brave enough to cast off the mask.

As far as Hollywood is concerned, there are only two types of women- it’s your typical scenario of the femme fatale, a deviant who utilises her wily powers of seduction, or the Virgin Mary.

The angel or the devil, the child-like heroine or the evil queen. It’s limited at best, but there’s something so fascinating about the ‘villains’, they are more anti-hero than purely evil. No hero is all good, and no villain is all bad.

Society has always been suspicious of powerful women, it demonises them to try and create a backlash, to attempt to convince us that their ambition is wrong. It also plays the insanity card WAY too often to disregard them.

Think of all your classic Disney villains, most of them are childless. This creates the preconception immediately that they are somehow unnatural, they are barren and cold and ruthless.

Anything and everything is done to use the audiences’ preconceived idea of the natural to focus your judgements on how inherently wrong it is for a woman to want more than the cards she has been dealt.

After all, the idea of a witch came about from fear of female sexuality in the 15th century, women who were single and childless were assumed to be evil.

We are fixated on these women because they revel in being all the things that we are told we simply cannot be. They allow themselves to get angry, to take action, to get even.

Most of the time they are just portrayed as being obsessed with regaining their youth through whatever means necessary, they use their jealousy to punish young and beautiful female characters. They sneer, they cackle, they are impeccably dressed, and their red lipstick is ALWAYS on point.

Personally I think this is an insult to women everywhere, we are complicated beings and beauty isn’t the pinnacle of our world.

It’s the pinnacle of what our society expects us to be for success and happiness, but women deserve better stories than this. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes, motives can often have substance and a moral grey area.

They define transgression, and cross the imaginary borders into the dark unknown where society has ostracised them. They more than likely live in a lair, with some kind of animal side-kick, and don some luxurious fur coat.

They also always do this while looking flawlessly evil, and are more than likely single. They are portrayed as being loners, as being unwanted, precisely for desiring more than what they are supposed to. The poor men who cross their path are either demolished, disgusted or destroyed.

Let’s take a look at some of the film industry’s most fabulous villainesses, and we guarantee you that some higher knowledge will be dropped by these fierce females.

Miranda Priestley: Dropping the knowledge bombs left, right and centre.

Based on the Vogue editor-in-chief Anne Wintour, Meryl Streep perfectly embodied the uberboss who terrorised interns day and night, who could make anyone cry over a cerulean blue sweater, and whose soft spoken voice could tear you down brick by brick and leave your self-esteem in tatters.

A simple “that’s all” and her classic arched eyebrow is all that’s ever needed to destroy everything you thought you knew.

Impossible to please, manipulative, and yet every intern who was unlucky enough to cross her path ended up with the thickest skin imaginable, and this later became their best asset in the cut-throat fashion industry.

A top female executive’s main priority is to teach those who come after her to be the best, because most of the time mediocre men can reach heights that only exceptional women get the opportunity to jump for.

Miranda also epitomises the female sacrifice, and society’s obsession with rating women’s worth by their appearances.

The second she has seemingly lost her youth, they replace her with a younger model who is not even close to being as qualified as her.

It’s the only time we ever see a crack in her ice-cold persona, and the audience is given a glimpse into her life, which has revolved around a fashion publication. Her marriage, her family, her career; the impossible juggling balance that every woman is expected to do, like walking tightrope in a circus.

Miranda is fierce as hell, serves blunt reality checks to everyone in sight, and never wastes her time with pretending to be the glowing subservient heroine.

She shows the industry how good she is at her job, without the façade of aiming to please.

Second, is of course, Regina George. The woman who has everyone feeling victimised, second guessing their wardrobe choices and cutting holes in their t-shirts.

Regina is the constant reminder that appearances and perception go hand-in-hand.

Image is often pivotal to society’s understanding of women, but some of the most famous female characters have twisted this in their favour.

Regina George is queen of the put-downs, every girls wants to be her and every guy wants to get with her. Her power is the shallow angle of popularity, and she uses it to perfection.

Amy Dunne from Gone Girl is another classic example of a beautiful woman using her perceived image to manipulate those around her.

If you’ve seen the boxcutter scene from the film, you’ll have realised just how evil Amy really is, and how intelligent.

She is easily one of the most dedicated villainesses you’ll see on screen, committing to her plot so much that she writes an entire fake diary to frame her husband of her murder, and writhes around in bucketfuls of blood. Bit much?

Evil in many ways for these characters is constrained by their womanhood; their identity is that of a jealous wife, a vengeful mother, or a scorned partner whose husband has been having an illicit affair.

These stereotypical gender notions limit their depth and complexity which is given to nearly every male villain, they are expected to fit a single mould and heavily penalised if they don’t. These villains push the boundaries, and don’t care about likeability, a rebellious act in today’s world.

Some of the scariest female villains are those that inflict evil on other women, after all, gals need to stick together. Of the many lessons we can learn from a decent villainess, it’s that women are not the fragile creatures in need of protection that many heroines are conveyed to be.

The most badass female villains twist cultural norms of femininity into something else entirely. We need some more Dark Ladies to get the ideal balance, to show realistic, three-dimensional female characters on screen and on paper.

Power makes poison, but every villainess is a heroine in her own mind.

Disney movies were a staple part of my childhood, and there was one in particular that made me dream of life under the sea. The Little Mermaid has always been one of my favourite Disney movies with its catchy soundtrack, the colourful setting, and Ariel- the determined and caring mermaid.

The original tale comes from 1837 when Hans Christian Andersen penned a gripping fairytale about a young mermaid who is willing to give up everything for the man she loves.

Fast forward to 2018 and Louise O’Neill has released her own adaption of the classic fairytale. Her twist on The Little Mermaid takes place under the waters of the Irish coast. We meet the teenage mermaid Gaia, who dreams of escaping to the surface, away from the clutches of her horrid father.

The tale is similar to the Disney classic with Gaia falling for the handsome human boy and decides to give up her tail for legs, however, what West-Cork writer O’Neill does is trickle the tale with meaningful feminist messages.

It’s the fairytale every young woman needs to read. Gaia’s naivety shows us just how easily love can fool us. As kids, we fell for the dashing Prince Eric, but the male protagonist in this story will leave you feeling seasick.

The Surface Breaks is dark and will make you feel uneasy at times, but that discomfort is necessary because it shines a light on the horrid issues women have to deal with today, including sexual assault and being disrespected solely because of our gender.

This retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's story is a thrilling read, and the powerful ending will leave you gasping for air

The Surface Breaks published by Scholastic is available for €12.99 at Dubray.

And actually, it wasn't an accident. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Wonder Woman’s screenwriter, Allan Heinberg, said: “The story as I see it is The Little Mermaid, specifically Disney’s incarnation.”

He added: “This is a woman who has been raised in a very protective, sheltered life, she’s curious about what life is like outside and she wants to have her own experience.

Taking to Instagram, Lindsay Lohan posted a snap of herself side-by-side with a shot of Ariel from the Disney cartoon.

Sharing the picture with her 5.9 million followers, the actress captioned the shot "I will sing again, as #Ariel," along with a list of conditions such as that her sister Ali Lohan be cast to sing alongside her in the film.

The caption was later deleted and replaced with the simple hashtag #TheLittleMermaid.

The star perviously posted an image of Ariel to her Instagram, telling her followers that the mermaid is her "dream role."

The image has since been deleted, along with all but nine of her Instagram images.

Lindsay fans seem divided in the comments section under the most recent image, with some supporting the actress in her pursuit of Disney stardom, while others claim she is "too old" for the role.

Cartoon creators have long been criticised for their limited depiction of female beauty, but over the last few years Disney has made a notable effort to introduce greater ethnic diversity into its productions.

While this move has received much praise, many people still believe that not enough body types are represented by the much-loved Disney princesses.

Because of this situation YouTube star Loey Lane decided to film herself dressed in a Little Mermaid style bikini.

In a video which had been viewed more than 160,000 times since March, the plus-size fashion and beauty vlogger explains why having curvy Disney princesses or Barbies to look up to as a child would have made her feel more comfortable with her own body.

The self-proclaimed "Not So Little Mermaid" reflects back on one childhood experience in particular when she visited a Disney centre on a youth trip and realised that the Little Mermaid character who best represented her frame was the evil villain Ursula.